Cheese and Sausage Manicotti

 

My sweet friend came home from the NICU with her twins a little while back.  Her tribe circled the wagons in support and started a food delivery calendar.  My day was last Wednesday,  Cheese and Sausage Manicotti was the delivery. Would you like to see?

Alrighty…..

To bring out the best in this Manicotti, buy or order the finest cheeses from a cheese shop or Italian deli: fresh ricotta, mild imported provolone, and Parmigiano-Reggiano.  Here in Southern California we have an Italian Kitchen, Claro’s.  Did you know they have an ONLINE STORE?  They will even ship overnight within the US of A.  Here is where I purchased this mighty large 5lb bag of sweet sausage and the cheese.  A nursing Mommy might not care for the spicy sausage, but if it sounds good to you, by all means use the spicy stuff.

I only needed a few of these sausages (five), the rest I’ll use elsewhere or freeze.

First poke some holes in the sausages to help in their cooking with a knife or fork. Like my Halloween paper plates?

Then chop up half an onion, into a very fine dice.

Add both to a large pan over medium-low heat

with a cover, for about 5 minutes

Grab some white wine, tonight was chardonnay,

and add it to the browned sausage and onions. Increase your heat to medium and cook until the wine evaporates and onion are golden, stirring often, about 5 minutes.

Good. Remove from the heat.

Now enter a 28-ounce can of Italian plum tomatoes with basil.  Again from Claro’s.

Dump your can into a food processor or a blender,

and puree away.  Isn’t that a fabulous shade of red?

Add a touch of crushed red peppers and give it another spin.

Add your sauce to the sausage and onion mixture.

Make sure you hold on tight to that blade if you are using a food processor.

Give those sausages a good bath in the sauce and let those ingredients get to know one another.  For a solid hour or more, to cook that sausage through.

While the sauce cooks, let’s prepare everything else.  Grab your basil,

And give it a chiffonade. (I feel fancy just saying that word). Set the greens aside until later.

Moving  onto the cheese.  I liked this mixture of four cheeses; asiago, fontinella, provolone and parmesan.  If you would like to use something similar, then try  Trader Joes shredded Parmesan along with a hunk of provolone to shred.

Mix your Parmesan, Provolone and Ricotta cheeses together and add some pepper. Set this aside.

Large tube pasta.  I couldn’t find actual Manicotti noodles, they are a bit larger than these.

But these had a good size to them. They would do.

Add them to your pot of salted water gently and stir.

Remove them from the water BEFORE they are done, still somewhat firm to bite, about 3/4 cooked. They still need to have some structure or “bite” to them since they will be cooked in the oven later.

Spread them out on a foil lined baking sheet, covered with olive oil so they won’t stick to one another.

The sausages are looking good.

Remove them from the sauce to cool a bit.  I started cutting them and they were way to hot to handle.  I decided to season the sauce.

Salt and pepper to taste, along with a 1 tsp of sugar.

Don’t forget to add your basil, I almost did.

Let those ingredients hang-out under low heat while you finish things up.

The sausage is a little cooler, cut it up into very small pieces.

Add the sausage pieces to the cheese mixture.  Give it a good stir, then

season with salt and pepper.

Grab your baking dishes and hit them with a little non-stick spray for insurance.

Spoon a bit of the sauce to coat the bottom of the pan,

like so. Now is time to assemble the pasta.

  Take a plastic bag and scoop your cheese and sausage mixture into the corner.  Cut the tip of the bag corner off, close to the size of the pasta noodle, and squeeze the cheese mixture into the pasta tubes.

Like so.

Fill your pan.

Then add your sauce on top.

Finish with a coating of cheese.

Cover this baby up and she is ready to go! ( Yes, I misspelled minutes. I was in a heck-of a hurry) 

Bon Appetito friends